At the height of World War II, in 1942, the British Navy had a sudden breakdown in radio communications. The British became convinced that it was a German trick. It turned out to be disturbances caused by sunspots over 93 million miles away.

Carl Sagan's COSMOS is one of the most influential science programs ever made.

Q. Does the moon have a dark side?

A. The moon does have a far side which is impossible to see from the earth, but it doesn't mean that it's always dark. Each side of the moon is dark for no longer than 15 days at a time.

Q. Where does sound come from?

A. The air is always filled with sound waves. All things give off vibrations, but some have a low frequency which most cannot hear. The reason: it may take 3 minutes to make a single vibration. They may be caused by earthquakes and storms.

Humans learn by touching things. And we can often make things work better by adjusting them with our hands. That includes scientists doing experiments. A scientist can watch what's happening, react to surprises, and adjust things to get the best results.

But until now most experiments on the Station have been sealed in containers, and the crew couldn't do anything with them. The experiments were automatic, but if anything went wrong, or just needed a little tweaking, the crew couldn't do it.

The glovebox in its rack, ready to travel to the Station.
This was for the crew's safety. Liquids in zero-g don't always stay in their test tubes. And if fumes get thick, astronauts can't open a window for fresh air. Floating liquids and particles, called contaminants, are a danger to the crew and to the Station.

Scientists needed something that would keep contaminants in, but not keep astronauts out. The solution is the Microgravity Science Glovebox, usually just called "the glovebox" around NASA.

The glovebox is about the size of a juke box. It is made of aluminum, and is sealed so it doesn't leak. It has enough room inside for experiments as large as 255 liters (67 gallons)! Astronauts can reach into the glovebox by sliding their hands into rubber gloves attached to the front and sides. There are large windows made of clear plastic so the astronauts have a clear view of what's happening inside.

Dr. Aleksandar Ostrogorsky using a glovebox on the ground.

"It's a beautiful setup, like a small laboratory," says Aleksander Ostrogorsky, a professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Astronauts will soon be doing experiments for Aleksander using the glovebox.

The inside of the glovebox is much like a science lab bench. There are power supplies, vacuum ports and computer interfaces. That means scientists can use their own lab benches on Earth to design space experiments. Not having to make everything automatic means experiments are easier to build and less expensive.

The inside of the Destiny Lab on the Space Station, the new home of the glovebox.

Scientists are looking forward to using the glovebox for many things. They will study things like the strange behavior of flames in zero-g, how cells work, and the growth of tissues. There are so many things to learn about in space, and the new glovebox will help!

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